Judging a wine (beer, food, or anything else...)

Generally, people judges food or beverages by their own preferences. However when you are a professional who works with different people and their spectrum of tastes, you just can't let your own favorite flavors dictates your standards.

So, if you want to proffer an impartial opinion about anything taste concerned, you probably should ask yourself: "How mature is my sense of taste?"

Many studies (some listed at the end of this text) reveals that our sense of taste develops through our life. There are 3 most important factors that determines our taste skills:

- genetic (number of taste buds; predisposition to like flavors that are in our culture, that our ancestors had been eating for centuries; those with cromossoms XY are more likelly to evolve sense of taste during life);

- life choices (all the exposure to flavors since birth, specially on the first 2 years of a baby, could determine wich flavors he'll prefer on his adult life; also, choices like to smoke, or to be a sedentary person, or to try new flavors; and some that aren't exactly life choices, for example use of medicins, drugs etc.)

- emotional connections (also known as "comfort food", that sort of flavors that make us remember childhood, our grandmas casseroles, or that special flavor of ice cream that you hadn't ever found again; other connections may not be so nostalgic, but a little bit about social pressure, as when you eat or drink something that you don't actually like just to share a moment with friends, family or your special someone, then after that you'll always remember of those people every time you eat or drink it.)

When we are born, ours favorite flavors are: fatty and sweet. Probably because they're calorie-dense, our nature makes us like energy junkies, so we have more chances to survive. And our brains are adaptable, when you expose yourself to new stimuli, it starts to assimilate and create data about that. In other words, if despite of that 3 factors you still have a infantile sense of taste, you can train your brain to start to enjoy certain more adult flavors, like bitter and acidic, by consuming those flavors with something fatty and/or sweet together, so your brain will associate the pleasure of your favorite flavors with those that you don't actually like, and will start to believe that you really like them too. Same thing about eating or drinking your hateful stuff when in the company of your beloved ones, give your brain a few chances and some time to process information and someday it will start to correlate the pleasure of the company with the taste of the food or beverage.

I, usually, express my opinion about food, wine and beer, by my own preferences, on my social media. Although, for example, on Vivino (app), I chose to give stars according to technical criteria. And when someone asks me about a wine or a beer and I don't know exactly this persons preferencies, I tend to classify by that technical criteria too:

1) Balance (floral, fruity, bitter, sweet, salty, acidic...)
2) Final Taste (how much time does it remains on the mouth)
3) Intensity (are the flavors intense? any flavor is overwhelm?)
4) Complexity (are the flavors rich? or are they simple?)
5) Expressivity (does the characteristics match to the style, type, region, elaboration process?)

Heritability of food preferences in young children
Flavor experiences during formula feeding are related to preferences during childhood
Early Influences on the Development of Food Preferences

my VIVINO profile